Junior dos Santos: “Regardless of him being a striker or not, I’m going for the knockout.”

Like most fighters who have achieved a similar level of greatness, 14-1 UFC champion Junior dos Santos isn’t out to prove he’s second best. After a storied run through the division the heavy-handed Brazilian has established himself as the sport’s top heavyweight with one possible exception – Alistair Overeem. Fortunately for “Cigano”, Overeem also happens to be his next opponent, giving Dos Santos a unique opportunity to separate himself from the pack to enter territory currently reserved for the likes of Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre.

Dos Santos understands how important beating Overeem would be for his career. However, that doesn’t mean he’ll approach him any differently than he would any other opponent including a willingness to exchange despite the Dutchman’s powerful, polished stand-up.

“I think it’s the ultimate test for my striking,” said Dos Santos in an interview with Sherdog. “He was a K-1 champion, which is the greatest striking event in the world. He’s a very strong guy, good, but I trust in myself a lot and I try for the knockout in all of my fights. Regardless of him being a striker or not, I’m going for the knockout.”

JDS has notched ten of his fourteen total wins by way of TKO. Comparably, Overeem has fifteen in 36 victories though owns nineteen submission stoppages as well.

“Jiu-jitsu can be Plan B,” continued Dos Santos of his stylistic approach to Overeem. “I’m an MMA fighter, training in everything. I’m well prepared to fight, whether standing or on the ground, and if I find it necessary to take it to the ground, it will happen.”

The 27-year old concluded the conversation on his May 26 clash explaining he was feeling healthy and going at it 100% in the gym, indicating he has recovered from minor knee surgery.

JDS is really good but his power doesn’t come close to matching Reem. Taking out Cain was certainly impressive, but the shot behind the ear is a bit of a fluky game changer.

Prior to that, JDS was able to pick apart–but not finish–Carwin & Roy. He won’t want to / be able to sit in the pocket & trade with Reem, cuz it’s only a matter of time before a power shot will turn out the lights. JDS will be wise to try to beat him to the finish, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do it. Alistair is too powerful, with a more diverse set of strikes.

Overeem has a great striking skill set but not the matching chin, and JDS has proven to have the power to ko top guys. Remember Overeem gave Werdum everything he had and couldnt KO him, but it took JDS only 2 minutes to do it.

@Boner “JDS is really good but his power doesn’t come close to matching Reem. ”
Are you bonkers!? All JDS does is knock people out. Oh except for Carwin and Nelson, of course out of the 37 opponents the pair of them have faced, only one was able to stop Nelson with strikes and no one has stopped Carwin.
Meanwhile, Reem has been (T)KO’d in over half of all his losses. I don’t see this one getting out of the second and if Overeem makes it passed the first I’ll be surprised.

Reem has a glass jaw and has always struggled against good boxers! Especially quick ones like JDS. Just watch Tyrone Spoong vs Alistair Overeem and watch overeem get hurt by one jab, then somehow wins the decision to advance to the K1 GP semifinals in 2010.

I think this is a pick em fight. I could easily make a argument for either guy to win. JDS passes the visual test with more recent wins against higher caliber opponents and Overeem looks better on paper with more experience and more total wins.

Both men could easily put the other to sleep in the blink of an eye. I guess I will say Overeem finds a way but, I really just hope it goes more than 64 seconds.

Really JDS is going to try and KO him?
Thats becuz he has no chance anywhere else.
Overeem is better everywhere full stop. JDS has one chance to win this and that is by TKO/KO in my opinion. MCMs MMA math is flawed. Overeem is more powerfull and a better striker. Werdum and Mir did better in the striking against Nelson than JDS did imo. What JDS is is a fighter that has good takedown d and good striking which has got him a long way. What Overeem is is a top of the heap striker that has a vastly greater level of experience. I expect Overeem to clinch and from there destroy the lesser fighter. Make no mistake, that is what JDS is but that doesnt mean Ovrereem will win. JDS has a good chance becuz of his style but he is not as good as Overeem is.

I see JDS taking his time and stretching this fight out, then a KAABLAM-like barrage of punches in Rnd 4 for the TKO.

Now that JDS is the champ,I think he’ll understand that HE dictates the pace, whereas Overeem will be over confident after his mauling of Lesnar (I mean come on, “Payday” Lesnar?) and blow himself up looking for another spectacular UFC finish, only this time he’s fighting a REAL MMA fighter.

I see JDS taking his time and stretching this fight out, then a KAABLAM-like barrage of punches in Rnd 4 for the TKO.

Now that JDS is the champ,I think he’ll understand that HE dictates the pace, whereas Overeem will be over confident after his mauling of Lesnar (I mean come on, “Payday” Lesnar?) and blow himself up looking for another spectacular UFC finish, only this time he’s fighting a REAL MMA fighter.

MMA Logic, that’s a good joke saying mir and werdum gave country better beatings except JDS was the only one of the three to drop roy nelson and make him fall from a punch. Plus that one uppercut JDS landed was harder than any strike werdum or mir landed on big country.

Overeem’s boxing isn’t better than JDS. Overeem has pretty much almost zero head movement, his defense against punches consists of him covering up and standing in the pocket. He got KTFO’d that way in K1 and with 5 oz mma gloves it will be even easier for JDS to slip in punches through Overeem’s defense.

Like I said before Overeem always struggled against powerful boxers, especially the ones faster than him. His cardio is questionable, he looked pretty gassed against Werdum but we know that JDS can put in three solid rounds of combination striking and stuffing TDs against Carwin so his cardio is not questionable. I see Junior winning by KO in 2nd or 3rd round.